Mobile devices and other devices with a limited storage capacity are unable to store as much data as users of the device may like. Users of such devices may have a license to use more content than will fit on the device. When content is purchased online, this may become even more troublesome since the capacity of the device directly impacts the amount of content that users might be willing to download. In addition, the users may also generate some content that is associated with the user and/or the licensed content, which needs to be stored on a non-volatile device. This user-generated content may include state of progress in the game, point of achievement, assets, private information, etc.
In some applications, a user requests content by specifying a title (or its identity), and a server responds by providing content and a generated user license. In other words, content and user generated data may not be discarded without the risk of losing the state or the ability to execute or use the content in future.
When a user discards content, state associated with the content is also typically discarded. In some cases, when state for content or for lots of different content takes up a relatively large amount of space—even if the state could be saved when content was discarded—it may be desirable to discard the state to make room for new content and any state associated with the new content. When state is discarded, it is lost even if the user retains a license to the content and downloads the content again later. It would be beneficial to have a flexible mechanism for the management of storage and retrieval of the user's assets: his purchased content and state.
The foregoing examples of the related art and limitations related therewith are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of the related art will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon a reading of the specification and a study of the drawings.